March 28, 2008

EFRA Homologated Bodies 1:10 IC Track

EFRA Homologated Bodies 1:10 IC Track

The EFRA Chairman for 1/10th IC Track, Franky Noens, has contacted us to inform everyone that EFRA will be very strict in checking bodyshells to ensure that they are indeed EFRA approved. When buying a bodyshell, you must always look if the homologation number is embossed in the body, preceeded by the word “EFRA”. If this is not the case, you will not be allowed to use that bodyshell at an EFRA race, even if it had been approved in the past.

Click more to see the full list of currently approved bodyshells… content


March 27, 2008

HPI Baja Endurance Challenge series

HPI Baja Endurance Challenge series

HPI Europe wanted us to mention the Challenge series they are preparing for this year. Using the Baja desert racing buggy, teams of racers from around Europe will be racing all summer to qualify for a huge 12-hour endurance race in Spain at the end of the racing season. Baja racers in every European country will be racing in dedicated Baja races, and winning teams from each nation will be invited to participate in the HPI Baja Endurance Challenge Finals. The epic 12-hour Finals race will be held in the sunny south of Spain in September at the end of the racing season, the perfect place to race the Baja and chill out with friends. The race entry will include weekend race entry for 4-6 racers, a racer banquet on Friday night, hotel rooms, Baja parts for the race weekend, tickets for raffle prizes and much more.

For more information go to the series page here.

Source: HPI [hpieurope.com]


March 27, 2008

Neil Diver wins Rd1 of UK 1/8th Nats

Neil Diver wins Rd1 of UK 1/8th Nats

Serpent have a report on the opening round of the 2008 1/8th scale On road British National Championships that kicked off over the Easter weekend at the very fast Brookland Circuit in Kent. Saturday’s practice saw drivers faced with a mixture of rain, hail and sunshine but on race day most drivers had the opportunity to test on a dry track but had to contend with very cold air temperatures of only 2C and later damp conditions. Defending Champion Mark Green with his Serpent 960 took the top qualifier spot after 3 round of wet qualifying with team-mate Neil Diver second fastest. In the A final the lead was held by 4 different drivers during the 30-minute encounter with Serpent driver Neil Diver holding it when it counted most to take victory by 10 seconds from Chris Heath in 2nd with Iain Milford in 3rd, a lap further down.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]


March 26, 2008

Robert Pietsch joins ATS Tyres

Robert Pietsch joins ATS Tyres

Current German 1/8th and 1/10th 200mm National Champion Robert Pietsch has been confirmed to have switched to Italian tyre supplier ATS. Debuting with his new foam at last weekend’s Pre Worlds in Portugal, the Shepherd Velox designer used his Xray NT1 to qualify in 2nd position before going on to finish the hour long final in 3rd behind ATS team mates Dario Balestri and eventual winner Daniele Ielasi.

Source: ATS Tyres


March 26, 2008

Sidiropoulos wins Greek 1/10 Nats Rd1

Sidiropoulos wins Greek 200mm Nats Rd1

The opening round of the Greek National Championship for 1:10 200mm took place over the weekend at the FRT circuit. Saturday practice saw the Serpent pairing of John Sotiropoulos and Kostas Sidiropoulos set the pace, which they would carry through to Sunday as they secured the top two placings in qualifying with Sotiropoulos taking the TQ. In the final Sotiropoulos capitalised on his pole starting position, opening up an early lead over the chasing pack but unfortunately 18 minutes into the race he destroyed both 2 speed gears, handing the lead to team-mate Sidiropoulos. After almost 2 minutes in the pits, Sotiropoulos rejoined the race 5 laps in arrears of his team-mate. Determined to take a podium finish he put in a superb recovery drive setting the fastest lap of the day on his way to an excellent third place finish, just behind Mugen racer Lymnios in 2nd, while up front Sidiropoulos cruised home to take his first ever National championship race win.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]


March 26, 2008

Duthie & Burrows win NZ Nationals

Duthie & Burrows win NZ Nationals

Last weekend, Taranaki in New Zealand played host to the country’s gas Nationals for both 1/8th and 1/10th scale. The 1/8th scale class saw the TQ spot go to Mugen racer Andy Ando, but problems in the final meant he could only finish in 6th, leaving the win go to his team mate Luke Duthie, with fellow Mugen racers Andrew Kirk and Selwyn Duthie in 2nd and 3rd, all on the same lap. In 1/10th scale it was Daniel Burrows that started from the pole position and could take the win by 1 lap in front of Mugen team mates Scott Robinson in 2nd and Jayden Duthie in 3rd spot, 3 laps further back.

Click more to see the 1/10th podium… content


March 24, 2008

Adam Drake wins the Neo08

Adam Drake wins the Neo08

This bank holiday weekend in Europe has seen the running of the Neo08, the largest international indoor gas buggy event on this side of the Atlantic and today saw the finals run. After 3 days of practice and qualifying it was last years winner Adam Drake that was fastest in qualifying but it was Taylor James who lined up on pole for the main final. Our partners oOple have been covering the event and they had this report from the final.

Taylor James was on pole for the A main, but with an hour long final grid positions don’t give much of an advantage. Taylor got into the lead and looked good followed by Adam Drake and Darren Bloomfield. A mistake from Taylor James saw Adam and Darren come through as Taylor dropped to third. Darren Bloomfield slowly gathered in Adam until he was right on his tail, but a mistake cost Darren some space in the race for first – and not long after a broken servo ended it for Darren. Meanwhile Lee Martin had a nightmare start with an engine cut on the start line followed by two more cuts. Coming into the pits too quickly Lee snapped the front of his RC8 and lost a serious ammount of time as his team got him going again. Joern Neuman looked good and was up to about 4th, but his car started to sound pretty terrible. Joern crawled round to the pits and Gerd Strenge had to replace the badly worn clutch which effectively put Joern out of the running. With Darrens challenge long gone, Mike Truhe now took up the chase on Adam Drake followed by Taylor James – Drake wasn’t making any mistakes though and held his lead with a 30 second gap to Truhe by the 45 minute mark. Adam Drake held on to the end to win on 85 laps, with Mike Truhe second on 84 laps. Taylor James came in third on 83 laps.

Read the complete report from today along with great pictures here.

Source: oOple [oople.com]


March 24, 2008

Ielasi wins 200mm Worlds Warmup

Ielasi wins 200mm Worlds Warmup

The weekend just gone saw the warmup race for the 1/10th 200mm World Championships take place at the Monsanto track in Lisbon, Portugal, host of the Worlds event in August. Qualifying saw 2 time European Champion Dario Balestri take the pole position for the main final ahead of Robert Pietsch in 2nd with Giuseppe D’angelo and Alessio Mazzeo rounding out the top 4. The Semi finals saw wins for Teemu Leino and Daniele Ielasi, who qualifed only in 14th position, and it was the latter that was able to carry pace into the final, taking the win by less than a second after 1 hour of racing in front of Balestri, with Robert Pietsch rounding out the podium in 3rd.

Source: Worlds Site [world-championship-2008.com]